An Abundance of Katherines
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40 free An Abundance of Katherines trivia questions with answers — literature quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
John Green's second novel follows Colin Singleton, a former child prodigy who has just been left by yet another girl called Katherine. To cheer him up, his best friend Hassan drags him on a road trip with no destination, and the pair wash up in a tiny Southern town called Gutshot, where a summer job, a girl named Lindsey and a very odd local landmark are waiting. This quiz covers the whole book: the plot and its twists, the characters and their nicknames, Colin's Theorem of Underlying Katherine Predictability, the running jokes, and the story behind the novel itself, from its author's other work to the honors it picked up. It is pitched for readers who have finished the book, students revising it for class, and book clubs who want a quick test. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so you will pick up details you may have missed the first time through.
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Q 01The Wells family factory that employs Gutshot in An Abundance of Katherines makes which product?
Tampon strings
Tampon strings are what the mill makes, which embarrasses Lindsey when Colin asks about it. Her great-grandfather founded the business, and the whole town relies on it.
Q 02Colin and Hassan pull off the highway at Gutshot to see the supposed tomb of which historical figure?
Franz Ferdinand
Franz Ferdinand, the archduke whose 1914 assassination set off World War I, died in Sarajevo, so Colin doubts the roadside sign at once. Lindsey Lee Wells turns out to be the guide.
Q 03Which courtroom TV show has Hassan Harbish spent his year after high school watching instead of studying?
Judge Judy
Judge Judy is the show Hassan calls the love of his life, and his parents fear he is wasting his days on it. Colin wins the Harbishes over by promising to help Hassan find a job.
Q 04Where is the secret hideout that Lindsey Lee Wells shows only to Colin in An Abundance of Katherines?
A cave
A cave in the woods is Lindsey's refuge, found on a hike when she was in eighth grade. Inside it is too dark to see, and that is where she and Colin finally talk honestly.
Q 05Colin Singleton believes everyone in a romance falls into one of which two categories?
Dumpers and Dumpees
Dumpers and Dumpees are Colin's two types, and he counts himself firmly among the second. The split becomes the first variable in his relationship Theorem.
Q 06Colin Singleton pays for the road trip in An Abundance of Katherines with $10,000 he won how?
A TV game show
A TV game show called KranialKidz paid Colin the prize a year before the trip. Hollis Wells recognizes him from it, which is how he and Hassan get invited to dinner.
Q 07Which wild animals do Colin and Hassan join the Gutshot locals to hunt in An Abundance of Katherines?
Feral hogs
Feral hogs are the quarry, and Colin prepares by reading up on them rather than practicing outdoors. Nobody in the party bags one: the day's only kill is a squirrel.
Q 08Colin Singleton longs for a 'Eureka' moment like the one credited to which ancient Greek thinker?
Archimedes
Archimedes fascinated Colin from the age of four, when he read about the discovery of water displacement. His mother promised him he would have such a moment too.
Q 09How many girls named Katherine has Colin Singleton dated by the start of An Abundance of Katherines?
Nineteen
Nineteen Katherines, each spelled exactly that way, have gone out with Colin. The first and the last turn out to be the same girl, Katherine Carter.
Q 10What summer job does Hollis Wells pay Colin and Hassan $500 a week to do in Gutshot?
Interviewing residents
Interviewing residents for an oral history of the town is the job, with room and board thrown in. Hollis wants a record of the mill and its people before both are gone.
Q 11In which US state do Colin and Hassan find the small town of Gutshot on their road trip?
Tennessee
Tennessee is where the pair stop after crossing Kentucky without liking it much. A woman who gives them directions warns that Gutshot is out in the sticks.
Q 12Colin Singleton and Hassan Harbish set off on their road trip from which home city?
Chicago
Chicago is home, so the roosters that wake Colin in the countryside are a sound he has never heard before. His first rural morning starts at 5 a.m.
Q 13Colin Singleton's latest Katherine ends their relationship on the night of which milestone?
High school graduation
Q 21Which silly word do Colin Singleton and Hassan Harbish agree to say when their teasing goes too far?
Dingleberries
Dingleberries is the truce word, agreed after Hassan snaps at one jibe too many about his future. From then on either friend can call it to end an argument.
Q 22Colin and Hassan say 'fug' in tribute to which novelist, whose publisher made him tone down a war book?
Norman Mailer
Norman Mailer swapped the word into The Naked and the Dead when his publishers barred the real obscenity. Lindsey praises Colin for finally telling a story well when he explains it.
Q 23On the Gutshot hunt, Colin Singleton fires his gun at a brown-gray shape that turns out to be what?
A hornets' nest
High school graduation was that day, and the couple had gone out for sushi to celebrate. They had been together for almost a year.
Q 14What nickname do Colin Singleton and Hassan Harbish give the Oldsmobile they take on the road trip?
Satan's Hearse
Satan's Hearse is the pair's name for Colin's Oldsmobile. They set off in it with no destination in mind, once both sets of parents have reluctantly agreed.
Q 15Which nickname do Colin and Hassan give Lindsey Lee Wells's boyfriend, who is also called Colin?
TOC
TOC stands for The Other Colin, a label Hassan insists on so nobody confuses the two. Lindsey has never dated anyone else, a mirror of Colin's run of Katherines.
Q 16Lindsey Lee Wells treats the head wound Colin gets on her Gutshot tour because she is training as what?
A paramedic
A paramedic in training, Lindsey takes off her own shirt to stop the bleeding after Colin trips on a molehill and hits a rock. Hassan had refused to give up his.
Q 17What color is the mansion where Hollis Wells puts up Colin and Hassan during their stay in Gutshot?
Pink
Pink is Hollis's signature: the house is the shade of Pepto-Bismol and she has a pickup truck to match. Colin says it is the biggest home he has ever seen.
Q 18Colin Singleton first stunned his parents as a two-year-old by reading aloud from what?
A newspaper
A newspaper his father was reading did it: Colin read aloud from the back of it, to his parents' shock. They took him to a psychologist, who tested him and called him a prodigy.
Q 19Hassan Harbish, whose morning prayers wake Colin Singleton in Gutshot, follows which religion?
Islam
Islam shapes Hassan's running commentary on what is and is not permitted, though he bends the rules that summer. His kiss with Katrina starts a real row with Colin.
Q 20How does An Abundance of Katherines end for Colin, Hassan and Lindsey on the way to get burgers?
They keep driving
They keep driving past the restaurant, realizing nothing obliges them to stop. Colin has just accepted that the future cannot be worked out in advance.
A hornets' nest takes the shot, and the swarm chases Colin and Hassan downhill to the cemetery. Hassan keeps calling the insects bees.
Q 24Colin Singleton's first Katherine, who asked him out in third grade, was the daughter of which adult?
His tutor
His tutor, a psychology professor Colin called Krazy Keith, taught him for part of every school day. That first romance lasted only a couple of minutes.
Q 25Colin Singleton phones his third Katherine from the Gutshot woods and learns which surprising fact?
He had ended things
He had ended things with her himself, which wrecks his belief that every Katherine left him. The correction is what finally makes his Theorem work.
Q 26How does Lindsey Lee Wells deliver her joke breakup on the day Colin's Theorem says they will split?
A note
A note says she has fallen for Hassan, then a postscript admits she is only joking. It shows Colin that his formula can explain the past but cannot predict what comes next.
Q 27Hollis Wells hides her factory's falling sales from Gutshot's workers by doing what with unsold stock?
Burying it
Burying it at a distant warehouse keeps the production line running and everyone employed. Lindsey, Colin and Hassan catch a worker with a bulldozer in the act.
Q 28Which step does Hassan Harbish finally take in An Abundance of Katherines after Colin's constant nagging?
Signs up for college
Hassan signs up for college at last, registering online for two classes. After watching Hollis fight to keep her workers in jobs, he wonders about adding a third.
Q 29When Lindsey's friends interrupt the tomb visit in Gutshot, who do Colin and Hassan pretend to be?
French tourists
French tourists is the act, with Colin posing as a visitor who speaks little English. Lindsey's laughter gives the game away, and the newcomers all get nicknames.
Q 30Which board game does Colin Singleton play for the first time at the Wells house and still dominate?
Scrabble
Scrabble is new to Colin, yet he plays it brilliantly. The game follows the dinner where Hollis offers him and Hassan work.